Carney unveils plan to rebuild Canadian armed forces and slash dependency on United States

OTTAWA, Canada (MNTV) – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled an ambitious national strategy aimed at drastically reducing Canadian dependence on the United States, announcing the largest increase in Canadian defense investment in generations and a sweeping economic reorientation he called “Canada Strong.”

“The US has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression,” Carney said in a video address titled “Forward Guidance.”

“Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become our weaknesses, weaknesses that we must correct.” He dismissed any expectation that Washington would return to its previous posture.

“Hope isn’t a plan, and nostalgia is not a strategy,” he said.

The Canada Strong plan aims to catalyze $1 trillion in investment, unify the country’s 13 provincial economies into a single internal market, build new trade and energy corridors and double clean energy capacity. Canada has already signed 20 new trade deals across four continents in under a year, Carney said.

On defense, he pledged to rebuild and rearm the Canadian Armed Forces, saying it would mark the first time since the end of the Cold War that Canada would meet the defense spending levels expected by its allies — building on his earlier declaration that “the days of our military sending 70 cents of every dollar to the United States are over.”

Relations between Ottawa and Washington have deteriorated sharply since Trump took office, strained by U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods and Trump’s repeated suggestions that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.